This reading is found as a phonetic complement using the signs for " z " and " a ", leading to the misunderstanding.
12.
Phonetic complements should not be confused with determinatives ( which were also used to disambiguate ) since determinatives were used specifically to indicate the category of the word they preceded or followed.
13.
They are used even when the inflection of the stem can be determined by a following inflectional suffix, so the primary function of " okurigana " for many kanji is that of a phonetic complement.
14.
This " mixed " method of writing continued throughout the Old Assyrian Period, although there were periods when " purism " was in fashion and there was a more marked tendency to spell out the words laboriously, in preference to using signs with a phonetic complement.
15.
These phonetic elements may be used on their own ( to represent, for example, grammatical inflections or foreign words ), or may serve as phonetic complements to a logogram ( used to specify the sound of a logogram that might otherwise represent more than one word ).
16.
Logograms are sometimes called ideograms, a word that refers to symbols which graphically represent abstract ideas, but linguists avoid this use, as Chinese characters are often semantic phonetic compounds, symbols which include an element that represents the meaning and a phonetic complement element that represents the pronunciation.
17.
It occurs as a phonetic complement in some fairly common Chinese characters, for example ~ � = " deaf ", which is composed of �� " dragon " and the " ear " 3� radical, 3�, pronounced similarly to �� : " dragon gives sound, ear gives meaning ".
18.
To alert the reader as to which Akkadian word was intended, the phonetic complement "-?" was written after KUR if hill was intended, so that the characters KUR-?were pronounced " aad? " whereas KUR without a phonetic complement was understood to mean " mtu "'country '.
19.
To alert the reader as to which Akkadian word was intended, the phonetic complement "-?" was written after KUR if hill was intended, so that the characters KUR-?were pronounced " aad? " whereas KUR without a phonetic complement was understood to mean " mtu "'country '.
20.
Ancient Egyptian scribes consistently avoided leaving large areas of blank space in their writing, and might add additional phonetic complements or sometimes even invert the order of signs if this would result in a more aesthetically pleasing appearance ( good scribes attended to the artistic, and even religious, aspects of the hieroglyphs, and would not simply view them as a communication tool ).
